Birthdays and bricks

Today was Coty and Mario's (our new friend) 17th birthdays. We celebrated with cake, candles, prayers and cards. Hopefully this was Coty's best Brazilian birthday.

We started the day at the church by taking the piles of bricks up to the roof where the second story is being built. Together we did it in about two hours. All of us got very good at passing bricks as if they were feathers. While we did that Laiana (another new friend who is 9 years old) taught us our numbers in Portuguese and we repeated our numbers 1 through 10 many times as she learned them in English. She was a quick English learner and was very patient with us when we didn't pick up Portuguese as quickly. She was especially patient with Jimmy who was having some dificulty communicating with her but she persisted and insisted he learn the numbers as well.

We did some stimulating of the Brazilian economy later in the day at the market. We all shopped and had fun trying to bargain with the sellers. Coty had the best luck in getting the bargains. We enjoyed dinner in the Cultural Center which is an older part of town that has been restored with restaurants and shops. Most of enjoyed chocolate pizza for dessert.

We had a great day, at the site and around town. We are hoping that tomorrow the materials will be there so that we can put the windows and doors onto the church. It is very exciting to see the progress and the love that is being shared. As they told us yesterday, they have been waiting for us for a year and clearly they are happy to see us. We are all experiencing the love of God as we share, learn and build together.

Thanks for your prayers and we will chat again tomorrow.